HIGH FIVE #5

It is that time of the month again for the fifth installment of HIGH FIVE, presenting our top five free downloads of each month. First up we have Joy Orbison who is not known for putting out free tracks but luckily contradicted this categorization in putting out his fantastic edit of Donell Jones & Left Eye’s R&B classic You know what’s up. First premiered on his RA Podcast back in October, O’Grady decided to give the track away via his soundcloud embedded below. Keep your eyes and ears on his own vinyl only SunkLo imprint which he runs with Boddika.

Archie Pelago are the first act to be featured twice in this series as the trio from NYC has been already been championed in our first edition back in December. Since then, Hirshi, Kroba and Cosmo D impressed at this year’s SXSW, were featured in RA’s excellent Real Scenes New York documentary and developed their own label which will be launched in the end of May with a new EP from the group. Additionally, they shared a new track as part of the third volume of Astro Nautico’s 4.20 dedicated Antlantics compilation. Hasid Dash is a bit more electronic and hectic than we are used to with Archie Pelago but still sounds like an organic jam session, boosting what sounds like layered Scottish bagpipes, leading into distorted intermezzos between cello, trumpet, saxophone and acid sounds.

Video collective Yours Truly started their series Song from Scratch last year where they initiated and visually accompanied collaborations of electronic music producers with rappers or R&B singers. With the money of sponsor adidas, the project financed one studio session with both musicians which was documented by Yours Truly. As part of this series, Canadian producer and Vase label owner Jacques Greene collaborated with R&B singer Tinashe back in January which can be seen here. Their result is the song Painted Faces which was made available to download for free just a few days ago.

Tricky is one of the most bipolar artists enjoying to be referred to as a legend. His first three albums from 1995 and 1996 are classics and define his status as an important figure for alternative and trip hop music although he himself never liked this ascription. Since then, his six following albums marked a constant decline. After a three year break, Tricky is back with his tenth album False Idols which will be released in the end of May. He recently sat down with Fact Mag to discuss his career, the decline of his music being released on a major label and why his new album marks a new beginning. A few tracks from the album have already been released and indeed indicate a great new direction for Tricky. Hear for yourself below and like his page to get Tribal Drums in return right here.

Lastly, a second track from the diverse Antlantics compilation from Brooklyn based digital record label Astro Nautico, run by such talented producers as Kuhn and Obey City since 2007. Next to Archie Pelago’s Hasid Dash we especially loved Communication by Photay who is also part of the promising Makoshine collective from NYC.